Origin

People have only combed their hair since around 1400; before that they would have kembed it and their hair would have been kempt. These are forms of the old word kemb, which was eventually replaced by the related word comb, an Old English word which may have the underlying sense of ‘tooth’. The term has survived, though, sometimes in the form kempt but especially in unkempt, which has come to mean ‘untidy or dishevelled’ rather than ‘uncombed’.